Presnock

as you may have noticed already from others, if you have a retiremnet "o" and not an "o-a" then you do not need insurance. I currently am on a retirement "o" for 19 years already and never once was I ever questioned (in Chiang Mai or BKK) immigration about insurance. Like I said, if you qualify for an LTR, you can come and go without 90-day reports, and only do a basic tm30 once a year. The in and out doesn't need the re entry report but LTR can come and go without doing that and use the better arrival and departure lanes when doing that. Cost over 10 Years if one does exit and return regularly is even cheaper. Just a suggestion. I have a home in Chiang Mai so if you have any questions, let me know.

You must be over 50, retired US govt right? If so you should google the Long Term Visa (LTR) if your pension is over 80K USD a year. The benefits are much better under that visa than the o retirement or OA retirement and a lot less documentation is needed and readily available from OPM.

FYI, not sure if you qualify for the Long Term Visa (which according to the 2024 benefits of BCBS,) should be accepted locally as the hospitalization if "unlimited". You should be able to print out those overseas benefits of BCBS (FEPBLUE), especially since it is a US government health insurance package! If you need more info just drop me a note via this forum .

Never really bored here. I spent 10 years (over a span of 30 Years) in Bangkok (9) and NKP during the VN days (1). I also lived overseas in 15 different countries, in EU, C.America, Asia, and Africa. I kept a log of the good and bad wherever I was. Thailand came out on top - food is great, weather is NEVER cold, people accept foreigners, no big earthquakes or volcanoes erupting (so far). I retired at 58 in Bangkok. After 9 years of "fighting" the traffic I moved to CM with my younger Thai wife and 10 year old daughter as CM has a great International School. When my daughter began university here, we rented a condo for her next to the college, rented a house on the Airport Link train as we also have 2 dogs needing a yard and still keep our CM house. I exercise at home regularly with weights and core exercises plus walk daily in the Mooban. I am 77 years old now, take no medicines, haven't even had a headache in 24 years (truly). Thailand through stores like Villamart has a multitude of veggies, berries, nuts, fruits year round so I also can eat fairly healthy and do so on a daily basis and also eat a Thai meal almost every lunchtime. My breakfast with fruit is on "soaked" oatmeal and then a Thai lunch, after my evening walk a berry, nut and seed with probiotic yogurt meal. I do not drink alcohol, nor smoke pot (never have) nor use tobacco of any type. My family is my main concern and I am happy doing whatever with them. Our daughter usually spends her free time at hour house. I enjoy reading novels usually that have been on the large number ! seller's list and chatting occasionally on this forum and with some from my high school, work days or VN (4 years in country or theater). I have been lucky or blessed almost my entire life with very few if any regrets of decisions that I made and being of an optimistic nature, am working on my Long Term Visa at this time. To me, I thought Thailand was close to paradise when I retired and I haven't changed my mind yet. I certainly hope that the majority of those that read the notes in this forum feel the same. If I ever thought that life was boring, I would alter my lifestyle or living location for sure as there are many different lands out there!

just did it myself....get a form for transfer of data from old to new on the immigration wegsite. It is free to do this. At the same time they will do like mine possibly - tm30 and 47 at the same time/ All no charge! and fairly quick at CM anyway.

I just did my transfer of data from old passport to new passport, I too am American and CM immigration NEVER mentioned the "no-longer-available" letter from the US embassy.

yes, you can carry around the old passport too but in reality, the State Department has cancelled that passport number so ... yeah for locals who knows?

The State Dept punches holes in the front cover page of the old passport as a new one is issued and they have always returned the old with the new passport. Done many times over the years

I recently received my new US passport and had a problem getting my 90-day report on line so I went to the CM immigration office near the airport, I had downloaded the form for transferring stamps from old to new passport and did mofr 47 (90-day report) twice just in case - 1 using old passport and 1 one using new passport and yes, they insisted I had to use to old passport for that process - only 5 minutes so so problem, also had to check in with TM 30 office who update they system (this office opened at 8:15 and took 5 minutes so the main office still had not opened and all my paperwork was checked prior to that opening. I turned in the paperwork to window 2 for transfers of stamps. All in all it took about an hour and a half at immigration to have all stamps transferred, the 90-day report and TM30 update so I was pleased with that and happy to have it all done. As an added benefitr of course, by doing the 90-day report on the last day of the old one, I get a full 90 days prior to having to do it again. At least the weather was cool for that morning too and there was a huge crowd there. I forgot to mention- there is NO CHARGE for either of these processes!

I recently received my new US passport and had a problem getting my 90-day report on line so I went to the CM immigration office near the airport, I had downloaded the form for transferring stamps from old to new passport and did mofr 47 (90-day report) twice just in case - 1 using old passport and 1 one using new passport and yes, they insisted I had to use to old passport for that process - only 5 minutes so so problem, also had to check in with TM 30 office who update they system (this office opened at 8:15 and took 5 minutes so the main office still had not opened and all my paperwork was checked prior to that opening. I turned in the paperwork to window 2 for transfers of stamps. All in all it took about an hour and a half at immigration to have all stamps transferred, the 90-day report and TM30 update so I was pleased with that and happy to have it all done. As an added benefitr of course, by doing the 90-day report on the last day of the old one, I get a full 90 days prior to having to do it again. At least the weather was cool for that morning too and there was a huge crowd there.

Passsports faked around the world with the US passport rating high on the "to do" list. The datachip is just an additional attempt at blocking anyone's copying of a passport.

I am no expert in this area of expertise but I know the govt - they will process your new passport form and date the new passport as your paperwork is finalized so since you ask for a new passport a year in advance, the date for the new passport will be current and your old passport has been poked and no longer is valid for use. The process BTW has been accomplished in around a month total time. Now, you have to have any immigration stamps transferred soonest. But they insist on the latest 90-day report be done with the "dead" passport instead of he new one - at least in CM.

mention the insurance company and derogatory comments gets one in legal troubles here!

Yeah, for example, the 6-year old kid taught how to shoot a handgun, takes it to school, tries to kill his teacher who puts out her hand and takes the bullet there before hitting her which kept her from dying. Eventually, because of all the public pressure, the mother of that child (the registered owner of the gun) was sentenced to two years in prison!! Finally!

yeah and in the US today, they are coddling the adult criminals too, no bail necessary for armed robberies, mob mayhem including burning or private property, taking over 6 blocks of a city for over a month, and then, even when the perp goes to court, a sympathetic judge will not send them to jail! Scary to say the least that citizens continue failing to realize what they are voting for. Just wait till November and we will see just how bad things might get as then it will be too late!

thanks for the info, will keep that in mind

sounds good to me. , I too use BCBS for over 20 years so shouldn't be a problem. Have documentation on pension with amount of taxes and health insurance deduction. thanks for the info, daughter is college student and rents a condo in SanYam so can get there too with no problems. Now to get my data transferred from my old to new passport, and then will begin working on the LTR...long stay is good until 14 May so have plenty of time. Appreciate any and all of these helpful hints from the forum followers.

This is number 2 on the types of farangs - 1 the super wealthy, 2 the wealthy pensioner - atg least 80K USD a year, 3- pensioner 40-80K USD with some other added restrictions, and SUper brains or super needed skills. Easy to find all the requirements needed by googling "Long Term Resident" visa. Some are difficult, impossible for me but the one "wealthy pensioner" fit me to a TEE so to speak. Good luck! - also for you, the web site will give you some of the bennies assoc with the LTR - no local taxes on income here or from abroad, no 90-day reports, 1 yearly report, unlimited in and outs of the country free, and a work permit if one so needs it.

exactly what I was thinking! especially after seeing the note from MPOLL above about the unnecessary agent as online for LTR is pretty easy for one to do. I have done my retirement visa and yearly longstays by myself for 18 years and when I went to the LTR online website, yes for me doing a (don't laugh) "wealthy pensioner", I immediately saw what he meant. But, since it takes 20 days after applying to get the LTR stamps, it didn't solve my immediate problem as I was "disapproved" online TM-47 report so I also have to transfer stamps from my old passport to my new passport so will do that and the 90-day report in person (and get a full 90-days until next one is due if there is one since with the LTR that is GONE! That 90 days will end with the date my long stay is due but again if I do get the LTR that will be moot too! I do appreciate this forum and its users as I note there almost always some users willing to pass on their experiences. Thanks to all.

thank you for the info, I will look at the online application...I have recently received my new passport so no transfers of visa/long stay extensions...not sure if I'll have problem or not.

Hello fellow forum members, I normally live in CM and have been doing my 90-day reports for almost 20 years with no problems. Now, this month I have a minor problem but can solve all those future reports by obtaining an LTR visa. Normally I would just do it myself as my yearly extension is not until May but I have a new passport just recently received and just like to start fresh with the LTR and not have to concern myself with transferring the current visa/long-stay extension into the new passport. Query if anyone has an agent in BKK or CM that from experience is trustworthy? Appreciate any info.

AHA, perhaps we have found the causes of...whatever is wrong here

Yeah, not really worried, if pressured about taxes to be deducted here, I would just go the LTR visa as I can meet the criteria for that.

I also believe, do the crime then must do the time, however, I also think that PARENTS need to begin taking responsibility for the acts of their children. Once the parent pays a fine or does some time, they will think twice about letting the kids run rampant all the time. I notice in the US, now some of the "progressive" cities are allowing criminals back on the street even before any court time or very little court time, just to turn them back out due to a "rough upbringing", "drugs" or even the "race" excuse. Some of these have been in the news recently - one was shot trying to hijack a vehicle using a pistol (had been arrested 8 times previously with no jail time and let out on own recognisance instead of bail even) but the last guy he tried to hijack was an off-duty police who shot him. Some parents are now being charged with negligence and getting up to 2 years in jail for allowing her 6-year old to know how to shoot a gun - he shot his teacher but she was only wounded - 6-years old! but mom just got 2 years in prison! Here, many parents just send their kids to the grandparents who don't even try to discipline the kids it seems. Just gets worse on a daily basis as drugs are so prevalent too it seems to me. Scary at times but since I don't hang out around any of those areas, I can still enjoy the life here so far.

I notice and since Mike Lister seems to be the most knowledgeable among our ex-pats using this forum, I see he quoted about the applying for a tax number within 60 days from the date he derives ("""here is he most important thing for me"") ASSESSABLE income. Since I only have for the last 19 years received a US government pension as my annual income and will not ever add anything else, I will never have any assessable income so I therefore do not plan to get a TIN. However, since Mike is also the first to tell all, that we don't know all the facts about this new interpretation of an old law, and it turns out that they alter this particular phrase to delete the "assessable" part and require us to get a TIN if we make so much money then in order to have any possible immigration problems in the future, I just may get a TIN after I discuss this with the RD folks in the future.